WASHINGTON — National security and legal experts with the Brennan Center for Justice are urgently calling on Congress to enact what they describe as common-sense reforms to restore oversight, protect constitutional rights and curb abuses within the Department of Homeland Security.
The appeals come from a team of experts that includes Margy O’Herron, Rachel Levinson-Waldman and Hannah James, who argue that congressional inaction has allowed key accountability mechanisms to erode.
The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy organization dedicated to strengthening democracy and protecting constitutional rights in the United States, contends that while DHS has received record levels of funding for immigration enforcement, critical oversight mechanisms have been dismantled, leaving the public without adequate protections for First and Fourth Amendment rights.
The First Amendment protects an individual’s freedom of speech and expression — specifically, freedoms of speech, assembly and petition. The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Recently, there has been an increase in alleged violations of those protections, particularly amid a surge in warrantless ICE raids and arrests.
The Brennan Center has emphasized that the reforms it outlines are not comprehensive, but instead aim to restore accountability mechanisms that have been weakened and to allow Congress to reclaim its oversight role.
According to the experts, DHS has undermined its own oversight offices by significantly reducing staffing levels.
The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman are no longer able to fully carry out their mandates after losing nearly all line employees responsible for handling civil rights complaints, immigration application issues and detention conditions.
The experts are calling on Congress to require DHS to fully reinstate these offices and restore their ability to investigate abuses and implement real-time corrective action.
At the same time, they are urging stronger protections for individuals harmed by federal agents.
According to the survey, ICE has spent significant sums on surveillance technologies that monitor and collect data on individuals exercising their First Amendment rights, such as observing or protesting federal officers.
There are growing concerns about invasive tools, including facial recognition applications that scan individuals without consent, practices the experts argue undermine reasonable expectations of privacy.
These concerns follow a 2023 DHS decision to remove its own policy governing such technologies from public view, making it more difficult for Congress and the public to determine what practices are permitted.
The survey also draws attention to broader constitutional and accountability concerns.
It highlights an internal ICE memo, obtained through a whistleblower, that allows home entry for immigration arrests based on “administrative warrants” issued by DHS rather than judicial warrants.
The memo permits deportations without consent, including through what it describes as “a necessary and reasonable amount of force.”
The survey further criticizes Congress for approving an additional $170 billion in funding for DHS.
A decade ago, ICE’s budget was less than $6 billion. Today, it is the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency.
The experts warn that unchecked funding without meaningful oversight risks weakening constitutional safeguards.
They are urging Congress to ban warrantless home entries, restrict surveillance of constitutionally protected activities and reclaim or condition funding to restore oversight, constitutional protections and meaningful accountability.
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